Chuck vs The Jalapeño Potato Chips
by Lyralocke
Summary: Oneshot, Chuck/Sarah. No matter how many times they cover kissed, he could never get used to it.


_Another one? What? Yeah I know. At least I'm writing something as opposed to the last two months of silence, so this is a good sign!_

_EDIT: I didn't proofread this like at all, I'm such a hack. But I fixed it._

_EDIT AGAIN: So apparently when I edited last time the internet exploded and the story doubled. The hell? But I fixed it.  
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_EDIT THE THIRD: Just looked at this for the first time in a while and noticed that none of the initial proofreading issues were fixed when I edited last time. Just the code mess thing. Now I am annoyed. Hopefully this will work.  
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_Disclaimer: I do not own Chuck_

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Ding.

"What?"

Ding.

"Ugh, what?"

Ding ding.

Chuck finally picked his head up off the Nerd Herd counter, glaring in the general direction of that irritating "ring for assistance" bell, only to discover that the person ringing the bell was not irritating at all. In fact, she was leaning on the counter, smirking at him.

"Sarah," he blurted, jumping to his feet and smoothing the wrinkles from his shirt. She laughed a little, a laugh so musical it could only be genuine, and he halted in his desperate attempts at shirt maintenance. He offered her a sheepish grin.

"What uh… what brings you here?" he asked, hopping over the counter. She smiled at the action and grabbed him by the shoulders, leaning up for a soft kiss.

No matter how many times they cover kissed, he could never get used to it.

"Do I need an excuse to come see my favorite nerd?" she asked sweetly.

Chuck laughed, a little nervous. "No, of course not," he said, then leaned in to embrace her and whispered, "Seriously, what's up?"

"Nothing, actually," she murmured back. "Casey said the other green shirts have been talking. Apparently I haven't been around enough lately, people are getting suspicious."

Chuck took a step back from her, wearing a distinctly mischievous facial expression. "What's this? You mean you're actually here just to see me?"

Sarah rolled her eyes, but she couldn't quite keep the smile from her face. "Shut it, Bartowski," she replied, delivering an affectionate punch to his shoulder to cover up her cheeks turning a little pink.

Chuck laughed and raised his hands defensively. "Hey, just making sure," he said innocently. "But I feel I should warn you, I intend to take advantage of this situation."

"I bet you do," she rolled her eyes again. He lifted an eyebrow.

"Was that a challenge, Miss Walker?" he asked airily.

Sarah smirked at him. "Sure was. What are you planning to do about it?"

Chuck glanced at the ceiling, folding his hands behind his back and rocking back and forth on his feet. "Oh, nothing. Just… this."

Chuck darted around behind her. She could have stopped him eight different ways in a split second, but she didn't. Instead, she allowed him to grab her around the waist and spin her around in such a ridiculous, childish gesture that she couldn't help but burst out laughing.

"Bartowski!"

Chuck slowed to a stop and deposited Sarah on her feet as Big Mike strode toward them. He scowled at Chuck, not even sparing a glance at Sarah.

"Act like a child on your break," he barked.

"Alright," Chuck shrugged. "I'm taking my break."

Big Mike waved carelessly as he turned around to march back to his office. "Fine."

Sarah turned toward him the moment Big Mike's door slammed shut behind him. "Sorry," she said sincerely. "I didn't mean to get you in trouble."

Chuck smiled and leaned back against the counter. "Please. That was pretty decent of Big Mike. It could have been much worse." Sarah smiled a little. "So about this break of mine." He leaned toward her, wiggling his eyebrows. "There's a vending machine in the break room."

Sarah laughed and gave him a shove. "Come on," she sighed, taking his hand and allowing him to lead her to the break room.

Chuck was thrown. She didn't usually respond so readily to his goofy flirting. But he supposed he didn't usually turn on the charm quite this much in public. He didn't know what had gotten into him today. Maybe it was because Casey had taken the day off to work on something (most likely dangerous) in Castle. Or maybe it was because Chuck and Sarah had done some serious cover maintenance the previous night, curled up together on the couch for the duration of _The Wizard of Oz_ under the watchful gaze of Ellie and Awesome. Maybe it was a hundred other reasons, but as long as she was keeping stride with him, he wasn't going to stop her.

When the two of them reached the break room, it was with the discovery that they were not alone. Morgan and Lester were there, playing paper football. The two of them looked up from their game and Morgan grinned.

"Well if it isn't my best pal and his lady," he said cheerfully. Chuck grinned sheepishly and Sarah smiled, even feigning a little embarrassment.

"Hey Morgan," Sarah greeted, her hand still firm in Chuck's. Lester cleared his throat loudly and Sarah rewarded him with an indulgent smile. "Hello, Lester."

"Hi Sarah," he sighed, a goofy grin on his face.

"Lester, stop drooling over my girlfriend," Chuck ground out, rolling his eyes. Sarah nudged him with her shoulder and he laughed, squeezing her hand.

"Drooling?" Lester repeated indignantly, sitting up and straightening his tie. "Please. I was just offering my greetings, like any civilized employee would."

"So what brings you two lovebirds back to our humble break room?" Morgan interrupted jovially.

Chuck shrugged. "Just grabbing a snack." He led her over to the vending machine, spreading his arms. "Whatever you want, milady."

Sarah rolled her eyes at him and turned a scrutinizing gaze to the machine. Chuck watched her, smiling faintly when she began thoughtfully chewing on her lower lip. She did that more than she realized, and Chuck loved knowing that about her. He was cataloguing her quirks, learning everything about her without her telling him a thing or even realizing he was doing it.

"Oh, here we go," she said suddenly with exaggerated interest. She touched a finger tip to the glass, pointing out her target. "Jalapeño potato chips."

Chuck quirked an eyebrow at her. "Jalapeño, eh?" he smirked. "Somehow I'm not surprised." She frowned at him and he let out a heavy sigh. "Gee Sarah, you're losing your flair. Nothing you do surprises me anymore."

Sarah gave him an appraising look. "Did you just say 'flair'?" she shot back, just incredulous enough to make him turn a bit red in embarrassment. Morgan and Lester snorted behind him.

"You're avoiding, Sarah," he said in a sing-song tone, pulling a dollar from his pocket and feeding it into the machine. Sarah leaned across him and punched in the code for her chips. He swallowed hard, but only Sarah noticed. She gracefully ignored it. "Uh… you just can't come to terms with the fact that I know all your tricks."

She gave him a look that clearly said "You and I both know that's the biggest lie you've ever told," but he just shrugged, an innocent grin on his face that had her laughing in seconds.

"You just wait, Bartowski," she teased, grabbing him by the tie and hauling him down to her eye level. "I still have a few surprises in store for you."

Morgan and Lester started wolf whistling. Chuck grinned, lifting his eyebrows in surprise. Sarah just shrugged and released him, reaching down to retrieve her chips from the vending machine. As she straightened back up, however, Chuck somehow managed to snatch the little bag from her hands. She blinked in surprise as he tore it open and crammed a handful of chips into his mouth. Her jaw dropped a little and her eyes narrowed into slits.

"Chuck Bartowski," she said lowly, shaking her head. "You're gonna regret that."

He grinned at her as he chewed, making obnoxious "mmmm" sounds all the while. Sarah folded her arms over her chest and waited, tapping one foot impatiently.

"So Sarah," Chuck said thickly as he swallowed. "Looks like one of us is still full of surpri-"

Morgan and Lester's jaws simultaneously dropped in surprise. Sarah had certainly surprised Chuck when she grabbed him, both hands on the back of his neck, and drew his mouth to hers in a kiss that left him stumbling forward a few steps from the force of the impact. After that initial moment of clumsiness, however, he regained his bearings rather quickly. It was only moments before her back was flat against the vending machine window and his fingers were in her hair. She took his face in her hands and pulled him closer, mouths moving in frantic unison.

"Sarah?" Chuck attempted to get her attention, but she was reluctant to stop, so her name came out rather muffled.

"Hm?" was her only indication that she'd heard him.

"You know… Morgan… and Lester left," he murmured past her lips.

Sarah finally paused, only leaving a fraction of an inch between them. She took a few settling breaths, eyes closed and a demure smile on her lips. She glanced up at him, and Chuck saw an unfamiliar spark in her eyes.

"I'm very aware of that, Chuck," she whispered.

"So then uh… what are we…" he began, still rather breathless.

She smirked at him. "You still taste like my chips."

Chuck's jaw dropped. She took time to whisper one last thing before she silenced him again.

"Now who's full of surprises?"


End file.
